Makes Windows 8.1 available on any system. Includes Mac support. Military-grade hardware and software-based security tools. Rugged design. Includes tool for creating a usable Windows image on the drive.

Cons

Limited on-drive storage. Bulky design may block other USB ports.

Bottom Line

The Spyrus WorkSafe Pro offers Windows To Go functionality and management features with military-grade security in a thumb-size drive.

Windows To Go (WTG) lets you take your workspace with you from one system to another on a flash drive, making it an ideal solution if you move from one office to another, or are a telecommuter who needs a stable, IT-approved image of Windows, but want to use your own machine. The 64GB Spyrus WorkSafe Pro ($180) does all of this with aplomb, but adds some heavy-duty security features that might be a bit more than the average user needs. One caveat, however, is that it's hard to find, and you'll probably need to contact Spyrus directly for purchase.

Design and Features Like its non-Pro sibling the Spyrus WorkSafe, the WorkSafe Pro is a self-contained operating system on a stick that lets you take a stable work environment from one machine to another. This top-of-the-line model adds some additional security and privacy tools, but is outwardly identical to the Spyrus WorkSafe. The device resembles a standard flash drive, with a black, metal case that feels like a piece of military hardware. Inside is an epoxy filling that protects against both physical threats, like water, dust and shock and prevents hardware tampering. It's similar in some respects, to the IronKey Workspace W500 and the IronKey Workspace W300 (64GB), both of which use an epoxy-filled design.

A metal cap protects the USB connector and seals out moisture and dirt when not in use, and a helpful rubber tether prevents losing a loose cap. With the cap locked in place, the drive can safely be submerged in up to 1 meter of water for several minutes. The drive is on the large side, measuring 3.44 by 0.96 by 0.4 inches (HWD), large enough to make accessing some ports a problem, and definitely large enough to block access to adjacent USB ports.

As a WTG drive, this is far more than just a storage device. Instead, it reads as a fixed drive, booting from the device with its own portable Windows 8.1 operating system. So long as it meets the basic hardware requirements—a processor with a clock speed of 1GHz or more; at least 2GB of RAM, and DirectX 9-capable graphics—you can plug into any PC (Windows or Mac), and boot up to the same Windows desktop. At purchase, the drive does not have its own copy of Windows, since it's expected that you will be using the WTG drive with your own Windows 8.1 Enterprise license, but Spyrus includes its own tool for simple image creation. When setting up that disk image, be sure to add any software you want to include initially since WTG drives have severe limitations when it comes to installing software and apps afterwards.

Booting from the WorkSafe Pro is relatively simple. Plug the drive into a USB port on the system, then power on the host PC. During the regular boot sequence, you'll be able to access the system BIOS (usually with a function key, such as F6 or F12), and point the system toward the Spyrus drive as the boot source. This causes the PC to boot up using the image of Windows found on the drive instead of the image stored on the PC hard drive.

Once the PC is booted from the drive to Windows, you should have basic support for all of the host system's devices (monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.), but you won't be able to access the PC's primary drive, a security measure that prevents snooping and transmission of malware. For extra storage space, you could opt for a larger capacity model—Spyrus offers the WorkSafe in capacities up to 256GB—but I'd recommend a second high-capacity flash drive, like the Lexar JumpDrive M10 Secure (64GB), or an external hard drive, like the Seagate Backup Plus Slim (2TB).

Spyrus has also added some pretty significant security features, like chip card interface device (CCID) support and an embedded readerless smart card (with FIPS 140-2 Level 3 PKI) that authenticates user credentials for secure network access and for PKI digital certificate functions, like multifactor authentication, smart card logon, encrypted email, and VPN access. When not booted into the WTG OS, you can still use the plugged-in drive for smart card logon.

The drive also offers centralized management tools with Spyrus Enterprise Management System (SEMS), which allows the drive to be disabled and enabled remotely (a handy feature when dealing with a lost drive) and to recover a forgotten boot password. The drive also has BitLocker installed for either full disk encryption or the creation of a separate encrypted Data Vault partition.

Finally, the WorkSafe Pro adds some security features that the standard model doesn't offer, like layered security and hardware-based encryption. The first line of defense is ToughBoot loader, which requires an extra password to boot into the drive, and protects against intrusion during the boot sequence. The other major addition is military-grade XTS-AES 256 hardware-based encryption, which offers full disk encryption and performs all of the cryptographic functions within the drive hardware, not relying on the host system for processing as with software-based encryption.

Pricing and Performance Spyrus offers the WorkSafe Pro in several different capacities, ranging from 32GB to 256GB. Our review unit was the 64GB model, which sells for $180, or $2.81 per gigabyte. A smaller 32GB unit sells for $125, or $3.90 per gigabyte, while larger capacities have lower per- gigabyte prices; the 128GB sells for $385, or $3.00 per gigabyte, while the largest 256GB model sells for $550, or $2.14 per gigabyte. By comparison, the standard model WorkSafe (64GB) sells for $155, or $2.42 per gigabyte. The 32GB IronKey Workspace W500 has a list price of $175, or $5.46 per gigabyte, while the Kingston DataTraveler Workspace (32GB), which has a list price of $90, is just $2.81 per gigabyte.

The WorkSafe offers pretty good read and write speeds over USB 3.0—Spyrus claims speeds up to 240MBps (read) and 240MBps (write)—which is a little slower than the IronKey Workspace W500, which offers has 400MBps (read) and 316MBps (write) speeds, but it still results in a relatively smooth user experience. It also boots in a relatively quick 18 seconds, so there's not a lot of extra hassle using the WTG drive instead of a locally installed copy of Windows. Performance is slower over USB 2.0, but it's still pretty usable. As with all of these OS-on-a-stick solutions, the drive does run warm after some use, but it's not bad in this instance, hitting just 96 degrees Fahrenheit (as measured by a Fluke IR thermometer).

Conclusion Like the standard Spyrus WorkSafe, the Pro offers a very good Windows To Go drive, but beefs up the already impressive security with hardware-based encryption and other extra protections. For the security conscious, it's a smart buy, but for others, it may be overkill, not to mention an extra expense. For most users and businesses, I still recommend the IronKey WorkSpace W500, our Editors' Choice for Windows To Go drives, since it's easier to find and purchase, and offers sufficient security for most.

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About the Author

Brian Westover is an Analyst for the Hardware Team, reviewing laptops, desktops, and storage devices.
As a child, Brian was frequently asked "What do you want to be when you grow up?" His answer alternated between Superman and Batman. This was cute when he was five, but worrisome at seventeen. Naturally, he is now a journalist, writing about tec... See Full Bio

Spyrus WorkSafe Pro (64GB)

Spyrus WorkSafe Pro (64GB)

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